Footdrills (or just called ‘drills’) are part and parcel of Uniformed Groups. That is no different for NCDCC. Footdrills are essentially execution of drills like turning, marching, and moving. It requires discipline, focus, and precision (not to be confused with Precision Drills, an NCDCC competition: I touch on that in another post). Some examples you’ll come across in UGs are:
- SEDIA
- SENANG DIRI
- (BEGERAK KE KANAN BERTIGA-TIGA) KE KANAN PUSING
- (BEGERAK KE KIRI BERTIGA-TIGA) KE KIRI PUSING
- (MENGHADAP KE BELAKANG) KE BELAKANG PUSING
- KE KANAN LURUS
- SATU/DUA/TIGA/EMPAT/LIMA LANGKAH KE KANAN/KIRI/BELAKANG/HADAPAN GERAK
- DARI KIRI/KANAN/TENGAH/TEPAN CEPAT JALAN
- HENTAK KAKI CEPAT HENTAK
It’s totally fine if you don’t understand what they mean. I’ll go though each of them (and more!) in later posts. For now, just know that there are countless footdrills with different variations that you’ll need to learn and execute.
Footdrills are something of an “art”, in my opinion. There are competitions for footdrills for different schools to compete in to see which school has the most accurate, precise drills. It may sound ridiculous, but believe me, there are some people who actually like footdrills (like me).
In NCDCC, you have 4 footdrill attainments. Footdrill Bronze, Silver, Gold, and UDI (Unit Drill Inspector). Footdrill Bronze and Silver is done in your schools from Years 1 to 2 or 3. Footdrill Gold is an additional course that you have to undergo, and you have to be selected to go for it (that means, your footdrills have to be top-notch to get picked to go). All Bronze, Silver and Gold attainments get you the respective badge. UDI, on the other hand, is only available to those who went for Footdrill Gold. It is an even more prestigious course than FD Gold, and you learn water gun drills (no, seriously) 1. Heard of RUSOK SENJA-TA? Yep. You learn that in UDI. Although you may think that’s for flag drills, I think you don’t learn flag drills in UDI. Upon completion of UDI, you get a red-white striped band that goes from under your rank to into your pocket, and you wear this as part of your uniform.
Cadets of a higher footdrill attainment can command cadets of a lower footdrill attainment 2.